If so, the I saw that reference to Lincoln Mayorga too. (I also saw that Joel still lists Al Hazan as "Al Hassan")!

However, if you look at Lincoln's bio, it says that he has been mistakenly credited with that session, and Mayorga does not list it on his own website either.

Seemingly, it was Kim Fowley in an interview given to Charlie Gillett on Radio London, who said he thought it was Lincoln Mayorga, and that has been frequently reprinted as fact.

Me? I don't know - I wasn't there and there are lots of contradictory versions of B Bumble on the web (I know - I just typed B Bumble & The Stingers into Google and you should see what came up!).

However, Wikipedia has a lengthy article on B Bumble & The Stingers, and a separate one on "Nut Rocker", and both agree that the pianist was Al Hazan.

Also, Earl Palmer, who was the drummer on both hits, and one of the brains behind the Rendezvous sessions from 1959 to 1964, produced an excellent autobiography "Backbeat: The Earl Palmer Story", and starting on Page 116, he has penned a very funny account of the B Bumble saga.

Incidentally, he also explains why there is still so much confusion over who played what on so many sesions, as follows:

"Don't ask me which ones I played on.. I should have done like Hal. Hal used to get gold records for all the things he played on. I never did that, you know. I would like to have a room with all those things in them. It would have been nice - show my grandchildren when they grow up so they don't say, 'Oh shut up old man and sit down.' I could just say, 'Look. I don't have to tell you nothing. There it is".

Thirteen different musicians (including four different pianists) are listed as being part of B Bumble - the pianists being Ernie Freeman, Al Hazan, Lincoln Mayorga and Leon Russell.

The full list is as follows:

Piano:
Ernie Freeman (Bumble Boogie)
Al Hazan (Nut Rocker)
Lincoln Mayorga
Leon Russell

Guitar:
Rene Hall (Nut Rocker)
Tommy Tedesco (Bumble Boogie)
Jan Davis
Hal Blaine

Bass:
Red Callender (Bumble Boogie)
Jan Davis (Nut Rocker)

Drums:
Earl Palmer (Not Rocker & Bumble Boogie)
Sharkey Hall
Mel Taylor

Saxaphone:
Plas Johnson

It also says that the "Nut Rocker" session was not recorded at Rendezvous Records Studios in Los Angeles as the notes on some of the reissue CDs state, but in the back office of Rendezvous Records on Selma Street.

This happened because the Rendezvous had rush-slotted the session for 9am, hoping to rush-release their cover version of Jack B Nimble's version of "Nut Rocker". This would give them three hours to record the track, as the studios were booked out to another producer from 12 noon until 6pm.

However, nobody could locate Ernie Freeman the morning of the recording and so after waiting for two hours, the session was re-scheduled for 12 noon, and Rod Pierce phoned Hazan, having been assured by Rene that he had heard him play "Bumble Boogie" at an audition, and that he was sure he could easily learn "Nut Rocker" from the Jack B Nimble record.

Palmer himself had never met Hazan, but Rene had, because when Rendezvous were putting together the original touring group for B Bumble, Hazan had auditioned for the job.

As the studios were booked for 12 noon, Pierce "borrowed" three Ampex recorders and some microphones, and everybody went over to Selma Street around 11am.

(Incidentally, Freeman's website, which lists all of his sessions, also lists Al Hazan as playing on "Nut Rocker". saying that he had been "paryting" all night long, which is why he could not be located!).

Funny enough, this squares with Hazan's own account of the session, where he says that he knew nobody at the session, apart from Hall, was not told why he had been asked to replace Freeman, and that he could not understand why the session was being held in an office, not a studio. He also says that he was introduced to nobody else, and that everybody seemed to be in a terrible hurry. He also says how somebody produced a portable record player and he learned off the arrangement off the original version.

And to further confuse matters, Hazan was told that no session fee would be paid but that royalties would.

When they were paid, the first cheque was made out to to "Ali Hassan" (which sounds like a mixture of "Al Hazan" and "Al Hassan"!)

And why "B Bumble" anyway?

Seemingly, in the case of the "groups" produced by Rendezvous, a "touring group" would be put together first, usually all-white even though the session band at Rendezvous were predominantly black.

Then their photograph would be taken, and a "biography" put together, because none of the actual Rendevous session musicians could afford to tour - they were making so much money as session players and once you dropped out of the session circuit to go on tour, somebody would step in so that when you came back eventually, your job was gone!

In the case of "Bumble Boogie", the band put together was an all-white act from Ada, Oklahome, led by drummer R. C. Gamble (whose nickname as Billy Bumble), and he is the gentleman whose picture is usually used, wearing a hideous striped jacket which sort of makes him look like a bee! Billy died only a few months back by the way, just before Christmas - and despite his photo (he looked about 35), he was only 19 when it was taken!

The other members were Fred Richards and Ron Brady who actually played piano in the group and according to all accounts, did a very creditable version on stage.

In any event, "Nut Rocker" failed to make the Top 20 in the US, and the band did hardly any TV work.

However, in the UK - the record went to Number 1.

So the original photo was released in the UK when Top Rank issued "Nut Rocker" but it led to total consternation, because instead of sending over the actual touring group from the photo, Rendezvous sent over Kazan with Gamble to mime to the record on TV - and frankly, they looked nothing like the band photo - Gamble may have photographed looking 30 but in real life, he looked about 12!

To add to the confusion, although the Top Rank bio had said that "Mr Bumble" was a pianist - on TV Gamble played drums, and Hazan, who had never been listed, was playing piano!

The best account used to be on the Spectropop website, whose URL I have mislaid, and Kazan was interviewed there about the session and about the "tour". If I can find the site again, and if the interview is still there, I will add it before posting this.

I suppose it does not really matter who played what at this stage - even the best reference books sometimes fail to mention any of the session musicians who really recorded most of the 50's and early 60's records.

For example, on The Crickets "That'll Be The Day", the listing is usually given as Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison and Joe B Mauldin, but the actual musicians on the session were Buddy Holly, Larry Welborn, Gary Tollett, Ramona Tollett, Niki Sullivan and Jerry Allison.

The same thing happened with all the Drifters records, where one lineup is listed on the album sleeve and in the reference books, while the recordings were actually made by totally different singers altogether.

Years ago, a producer told me that when a label signed a group, they would promise the band an unlimited recording budget, but then turn to the producer and order him to produce the record for a fraction of the so-called budget.

So what he would do is refuse to meet any of the musicians in the band, and deal only with the lead singer. (The band would naturally complain to their manager who would naturallyn complain to the label who would naturally say that the producer was brilliant, but difficult to deal with, but that next time out, they would make sure the band were used).

Everybody lied to the band in those days.

The producer would then record backing tracks using top session musicians, and later over-dub the lead singer onto the recording.

The group would then learn the recording off, for live performances.

He said that he had to watch some of the session musicians who as a joke, would record instrumental passages they knew nobody else could play - knowing that the group musicians would not be able to imitate the solos!

Of course, the system saved a fortune for the labels - one group for example "recorded" their first two albums in 6 hours and 8 hours using this method.

However, when they finally insisted on actually playing on their third album - it took 11 days, and even then, in the end, they had to overdub session musicians anyway.

But does it matter? In that excellent movie "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" somebody wisely says "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

PS After all that, I have dug up the interview - it is listed below. It is longer than I thought - also gives some very interesting facts about his later attempts in Gold Star Studios to duplicate the Rendezvous office acoustics!.

• RE: Instrumental: B. Bumble & The Stingers. Nut Rocker - 1962 - John 06/22/2009 09:30:33 EDT (0)
• RE: Instrumental: B. Bumble & The Stingers. Nut Rocker - 1962 - John 06/22/2009 10:28:47 EDT (0)